Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Evin sighed and didn't let the occurrence bother him. He was used to it, after all. Even if he refused, the Chairman would threaten him with World Shards or maybe even his tutelage with the Cosmics to force his hand. Evin fancied the idea of refusing despite it all, but decided against it in the end.

He glanced towards Leanne and found her looking back at him with sympathetic eyes. Evin shook his head slightly at that. He then looked towards Abe, as ultimately, the decision lay in his hands.

"Since things have come to this, I can only accept your suggestion. I am curious about our future student's abilities as well, and what better event to show us his capabilities other than a mock fight?" Abe said politely, though Evin suspected the Cosmic was hiding his displeasure behind his polite face. "But, I propose we do it after our lunch, as your nobles and our Cosmics seem to be in the middle of talking business."

With the Cosmic's approval, Decatur quickly ordered the servants around the house to prepare the Carew family's dueling grounds. His eyes gleamed in anticipation of the fight, even daring to ignore his mother's cold eyes, which sternly promised him a scolding later on.

He then started speaking of the rules of the mock fight, and it was agreed that Evin and he would fight till one of them yielded or went unconscious. The Chairman reassured everyone that he would be there to prevent anything unfortunate from happening. The usual stuff.

But one detail of the fight took Evin by surprise, and it was that Decatur insisted on having both sides use as much mana as they could. This meant that Decatur was free to use his 'well-fed' mana-core to its full potential.

Prior to this, Decatur's fights were always limited by an amount set by the vice-chair. The last time they fought seriously was two weeks ago and both sides couldn't use more than five standard lodestones' worth of mana. At that time, Evin lost to Decatur, because the latter absorbed all the mana in all five lodestones at once and, with the help of a Talisman, cast a huge Ivelisi spell which left no space for Evin to dodge in. Evin was pelted by a hailstorm from all sides, and at that time, there was little he could do to survive it.

Perhaps he would've been fine if he had absorbed only the energy of Tenarak and dedicated that to creating a barrier of some sorts, but as he wasn't expecting such a huge spell, his mana-core was filled with the energies of various other Worlds he was most proficient in.

This experience forced Evin to refuse the fight, "I will not fight Decatur with those conditions. I've only been a mage for two months at this point, and so far, I've only absorbed eight World Shards. I'd be straining myself if I absorb one and a half lodestones' worth of mana at once. Compared to that, Decatur's can easily take on six or seven lodestones and feel nothing. The only thing I could do would be to be pelted by his Talismans and various Magical Devices."

"You're wanting to become one of the King's Mages, aren't you?" Decatur said disdainfully. "Are you going to say the same excuses to your enemies when your King's life is being threatened? 'Oh, my mana-core isn't big enough to fight you. Please leave?'"

<I'd be immeasurably disappointed if you fall for such a provocation,> the Voice warned.

Of course, Evin wasn't so dumb to let Decatur convince him into a beating with a few words. He actually felt offended that the Voice would think that. He didn't bother to reply to the noble boy's question, "This and that are different things. And no is no. You can't expect me to happily let myself be beaten without good reason.

Evin could probably have provoked Decatur about his abuse of Talismans and other such things, but he noticed that the atmosphere on the table was in his favor. His reasoning to refuse the fight was valid enough in everyone's eyes, and there was no reason to muddle their views by acting childish.

"Evin, you're shaming the honor of the kingdom's mages by refusing," the Chairman interjected unexpectedly.

Evin was taken aback by the man's shamelessness. 'He really thinks me so easy to manipulate, huh?' he thought begrudgingly inside.

"Can you tell me where exactly you see anything relating to honor, please?" Evin replied, resisting the urge to hiss the answer out.

"He wants a chance to become one of the King's Mages… as any mage in the kingdom would," the Chairman began calmly, "Sadly, the choice isn't his to make; it's in the Cosmics' hands. But there is a chance for him to prove himself worthy by battling you and you're denying it for him. Of course it's a matter of honor."

The man was clearly spewing bullshit. Sophisticated bullshit - the worst kind. But when Evin looked around himself, he saw that Abe and the Countess was in agreement with his words. Evin could understand the Countess, as she was after all, Decatur's mother and would want the best for her son. But he couldn't understand why Abe would agree with the Chairman. Only a few minutes ago, the Cosmic looked like he was annoyed by all this, but now his eyes gleamed with interest.

Evin decided it was best to divert the conversation towards a different angle, "Sorry, but it's not as if you would automatically become one of the King's Mages just by learning under the Cosmics, right? I mean, there are only a hundred Mages who officially wear that name and I don't think they'll be happy to let go of their posts just because some 1st year Academy student learned how to make portals and spatial magics. And the part where the student manages to learn those things so easily sounds dubious to me as well."

"But they'll receive a chance to meet the King. And that's a chance to become one of his mages," the Chairman shrugged.

"There is no guarantee that our students will receive a high post under the king, but it's true that they would meet him later on," Abe explained simply.

<At this point, they're just going to push you into a corner. At least set some conditions yourself,> the Voice offered.

"Fine, I agree to fight with no limits. But I have my own conditions as well. I'm sure Decatur would be happy to accept them, as it concerns his honor and future, right?"

"Sure," Decatur replied quickly, one hundred percent sure he had the fight in his hands.

"We're not allowed to use Talismans or anything else that cheats casting spells. And also, the fight will not continue for more than five minutes."

"What happens if no one wins before the time runs out?" Abe asked.

"We tie and it would be as if the fight never happened in the first place."

Evin knew that the fight would turn worse and worse for him the longer it went on. Decatur's spells would become larger and more unavoidable, and Evin wouldn't be able to do anything to escape it. He imagined that Decatur would fortify his position with ice at the beginning of the fight, and after that he could take his time and corner Evin. But he wouldn't be able to do that with a time limit.

Decatur looked unhappy with the added conditions. He most likely expected the no Talismans rule, but Evin was sure he didn't expect the timer rule. But Decatur retained the decency to swallow his complaints, and the fight was officially underway.

Evin then focused on the food, as the conversation on the table steered towards business. But as he was eating, a servant came to him and asked him if he'd like to sit at the table where the Narke and Borna families were eating.

He was happy to escape the suffocating atmosphere on the Countess' table and walked over to his two friends. He offered Leanne to follow behind, but the latter refused.

"Hello! You must be Evin! Phel speaks an awful lot about you!" the small, middle-aged man greeted happily as Evin approached the table. "My name's Perre Narke, a viscount under the Countess' rule."

"It's good to meet you too, Viscount Narke," Evin replied and bowed with only his head, as Bella taught him to. He then turned to the plump man and repeated the gesture, "Greetings. You must be Viscount Borna."

"A polite young man, isn't he? I like it. I like it a lot," Viscount Borna said smilingly.

Evin then greeted the Cosmic on the table, greeted Bella and Phel more casually and sat on a chair between them.